Our Little Bungalow by the Beach: Our Plan for 2018

We’ve been living in our little bungalow by the beach for almost six months now, and are about to sign our new tenancy agreement. Now we have that first six months out of the way, we are looking at all the different ways we can update the decor and really make the place our own. As with any rented property, we are limited to what we can do in terms of decoration – our landlord is brilliant but there’s always only so much you can do.

We really love the idea of a nautical theme to the whole place. Our bungalow is only ten minutes toddler speed walk to the beach, and as you probably know from reading my blog, the sea and the beach is a huge part of who we are now. We want our home to reflect this.

The first thing we need to do is give everywhere a coat of paint – the dining area is quite dark, and some of the walls have a few grubby marks on. We are going to get some paint in various shades of white, pale blues and greys and paint every room, glossing all the dark woodwork (seriously, who has dark wood skirting boards and dado rails these days?) in a nice bright white. We may change the carpet in the bedrooms and hallway – Graham is a trained carpet fitter so that is something he can easily do. The living room floor will be replaced with some sort of moduleo flooring – much more practical with children. We will also look at buying some vinyl from http://cheapvinyl.co.uk/ for the kitchen, as it’s getting a little tatty in there.

Once everywhere has been freshened up and brightened up, we can move onto the fun bit – the accessories. I think having a nice, clean bright base to a room means you can really show your personality with furnishings and knick knacks. Straight away will be the changing of the dreadful and dated lampshades. The ones we have up are bloody hideous. We don’t tend to have the main light on very often in any of the rooms, preferring to use the dimmer lights on the walls or lamps which makes for a much cosier feeling. The next things we would be looking at changing are the light switches and door handles. Whilst they are just minor and relatively cheap things to update, they can make a massive difference to the room. It’s all about keeping things fresh!Our curtains will also need changing. Our current ones used to belong to my parents, and whilst I love the sort of Mediterranean colours in them, they certainly won’t fit in with a nautical theme.

If you’re on Pinterest, you can follow my ‘Seaside House’ board, where I’ve been busy pinning ideas for our home.

http://uk.pinterest.com/coffeecakekids/our-seaside-home/

As you can see, I love the little touches like candles in jars with seashells and sand. We already have two big vases crammed with shells ready and I want to get some mini battery operated fairy lights to pop in there with them. I’ve also been collecting pretty bits of sea glass – I’m going to try and make some sort of picture with them and my trusty glue gun to go in a frame on the wall. If it looks any good, I’ll be blogging about it so watch this space!

So, there’s our plan for our little bungalow by the sea this year. Nothing too drastic, nothing too expensive, but putting a little stamp of our personality into our home at last!

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